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I Wish “Real” Science Was Like This

This summer I have been working for an amazing program called EYES (Educating Youth in Engineering and Science) through the faculties of Engineering and Education here at the University of Regina. Our goal is simply to spark interest in science and engineering for children.

For the months of May and June we travelled across the southern Saskatchewan running workshops with students in Kindergarten to 8th Grade. We ran a variety of different workshops with students, usually dependent on the grade level we were dealing with.

Our workshops were extremely hands on and interactive for our students.

One of the ways I usually closed up a workshop would be to ask the students what they think of science. Sometimes I would hear something along the lines of “I love science”, but most of the time I heard “I wish real science was like this”. I would always follow by asking “what do you mean ‘real‘ science?”. Every single time I was told “the kind we have to do in school.”

Why aren’t real science and the science we teach (and learn) in school the same thing?

Science classes should easily be the most hands-on and practical classes students ever take.